Saudi Aramco will hold the official inauguration of its Haradh Natural Gas and Oil Development Project on January 18, 2004.

The recently completed mega-project consists of a gas plant capable of delivering 1.5 billion standard cubic feet per day of sales gas to Saudi Arabia's Master Gas System, and a gas-oil separation plant (GOSP) capable of stabilizing 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil.

Haradh Gas Plant is Saudi Aramco's second facility built primarily to process large amounts of non-associated gas - that is, gas from gas reservoirs, and not associated with oil production. The first was Hawiyah Gas Plant, brought on stream in 2002.

In addition to the sales gas, Haradh Gas Plant has a design capacity to deliver 170,000 barrels per day (bpd) of condensate to Saudi Aramco's Abqaiq processing facility, and can produce 90 metric tons of sulfur per day for export.

The GOSP associated with the Haradh Natural Gas and Oil Development Project has a crude oil capacity of 300,000 barrels per day, and includes a 130 million standard cubic foot associated gas gathering facility.

Saudi Aramco's president and chief executive officer, Abdallah S. Jum'ah, noted that the Haradh project is the third mega-project completed by the company over the last six years. The first two are the Shaybah oilfield development in the Rub' al-Khali desertand the massive Hawiyah Gas Plant. — (menareport.com)